BackupKit vs Backblaze

Backblaze Personal is the de facto consumer cloud backup. $9/month, unlimited storage, set it up once and forget it. It's been a Wirecutter pick for years and for plenty of users it's exactly the right tool.

BackupKit takes a fundamentally different approach: you bring your own storage. Use Google Drive, Dropbox, an FTP server, a NAS, or all of them at once — and Amazon S3, Google Cloud and Azure. BackupKit doesn't host your data; it just moves it to wherever you already have storage.

These are two different products for two different mental models. Here's how to tell which one is right for you.

Where your data lives

Backblaze backs up your computer to Backblaze's cloud. Period. That's the entire product. You can't redirect it to your Synology or your S3 bucket — Backblaze is the destination.

BackupKit backs up to whatever storage you give it credentials for. Want it on Backblaze B2? Add a B2 destination. Want it on your S3 bucket, on Google Drive, AND on a local NAS — all simultaneously? Configure three backups, one per destination. The storage choice is yours.

If you don't have any cloud storage already and don't want to think about it, Backblaze is friction-free. If you already pay for cloud storage (Google One, OneDrive 1TB, an S3 bucket for work), BackupKit lets you use it instead of paying twice.

Cost over time

Backblaze Personal is $9/mo / $99/yr / $189 for 2 years. Unlimited per computer.

BackupKit is $6/mo / $49/yr / $89 lifetime — plus whatever you pay for the actual storage. If you're using free-tier Google Drive (15GB) or already-paid OneDrive, that's $0 extra. If you're backing up 5TB to S3 Glacier, that's around $5/mo in storage.

Backblaze is the better deal when you have many terabytes and no existing cloud storage. BackupKit wins when you're backing up less than 1TB or already pay for storage.

Encryption and trust

Backblaze encrypts your data, but they hold the keys by default (you can opt into client-side encryption with a passphrase — but if you forget it, your backups are unrecoverable; their support can't help). The default mode is “Backblaze can see your files if compelled.”

BackupKit always encrypts client-side with your password before upload. The destination (Google Drive, an SFTP server, whatever) never sees plaintext. There's no “Backblaze can decrypt this” failure mode because BackupKit isn't part of the chain after the upload completes.

Restore experience

Backblaze's restore options: download a ZIP from the web (small datasets), or order a physical drive shipped to you (large datasets, $99-$189, refundable when you return it). The shipping option is genuinely useful for disaster recovery.

BackupKit restores from wherever the backup lives — one-click in the app, or manually with any ZIP tool. No third-party involvement, no shipping fees, but also no “here's a hard drive in the mail” option for huge restores. Speed depends on your bandwidth and the destination.

What each one is actually good at

Backblaze: zero-config, hands-off, set-it-and-forget-it backup of your entire computer to a single cloud. The kind of backup you'd recommend to a family member who couldn't tell you what S3 is.

BackupKit: deliberate backups of specific folders to specific destinations, on your storage. The kind of backup you'd set up when you care about where your data goes and what format it's in.

Bottom line

Pick Backblaze if you want unlimited cloud backup with zero setup, don't already pay for storage, and don't mind that Backblaze holds your keys by default.

Pick BackupKit if you want to use your existing cloud storage (or self-hosted), need client-side encryption you control, and want to back up to multiple destinations or just specific folders.